


Staying in on a Friday

by thejilyship



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, F/M, Roommates, james is a simp, jily, they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:34:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28418445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejilyship/pseuds/thejilyship
Summary: James is moping because Lily has gone home for the weekend and he misses her. He can't even tell her that he misses her though because that is too close to admitting that he has feelings for her and he can't do that because they're ROOMMATES!
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 23
Kudos: 106
Collections: James and Lily Fanfics





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I will probably only post one more tonight, because four is enough for one day.   
> This one was fun to write because James is a simp and we love that for him  
> Enjoy!

Lily had gone back to her parents house for the weekend. 

And it’s weird that she’s not there. It’s weird that the day has come and gone and she’s not back in the flat by now. He knows that she’s not coming back tonight, that she won’t be back until Sunday evening, but it’s weird and he doesn’t like it. 

They’d been living together, her, Sirius, and himself, for about three months now, since the semester had started and he’d gotten very used to her being around every day. 

He had done absolutely nothing about the fact that he fancied her in that time. 

But they _were_ roommates, so he couldn’t tell her. How weird would it be if he told her, and then she inevitably laughed at him and told him that she did not feel the same way? Then what? He’d have to remind her to add milk to the shopping list and hand her her mail like he hadn’t made a fool of himself?

Nope. 

So he kept it to himself. 

Sirius was out tonight too, after hounding James that he should at least downloading a dating app if he was going to sit around sulk over a girl he was too much a of a prat to ask out on a date. 

James had tried to tell him that doing homework was not the same as sulking. 

Sirius reminded him that it sort of was when it was Friday night.

James had no argument for that and stayed quiet. 

He was making good progress on his stats work though, and he wasn’t sulking. 

He _missed_ her, and that was worse than sulking. 

He thought about texting her. He got out his phone and clicked on her name in his messages and tried to come up with something to say that wouldn’t make him look as dumb as he felt. 

And then her name appeared across his phone in different font, bigger. He narrowed his brow, wondering if he had accidentally called her some how. He almost hung up. 

But he hadn’t called her. 

She was calling him. 

“Lily?” He answered the phone almost hesitantly. 

“James!” Her response was chipper. “James, I was hoping you would answer.” 

“Of course,” He paused. She had never called him before. “Are you okay? Do you need help?” 

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Lily sighed. “I should have facetimed you, you can’t see me rolling my eyes at you when we talk like this.” 

“I know what it looks like,” He said, the corner of his mouth tugging up. “Well, if you’re fine, then why did you call?”

“Are you busy? Am I interrupting something?” She didn’t answer his question. 

“No, I’m just doing some homework.”

“Why?”

“Now you sound like Sirius.” 

“I called because I wanted to talk to you.” He could hear the shrug that went along with that. 

“About what?”

“I don’t know,” She sighed again. “Anything? I’m a little drunk right now and if I go back downstairs, I’ll probably start a row with my sister. I figured I should call you. You always make me smile, and smiling Lily doesn’t start rows with her sister.” 

There was a lot to unpack there. 

His racing heart was doing quick work to unpack bits and pieces. 

“So, you drunk dialed me?” He asked, picking up his pencil and twirling it through his fingers. 

“Sort of.” Lily laughed and he smiled because she’d called him because he knew how to do that, how to make her laugh and smile. She had been upset about something and she’d called him. 

“Good,” He said, and he stopped twirling the pencil and clutched it in his fist. “I’m glad you called me.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah. I was starting to miss you.”

“I left yesterday. It took you this long to start missing me?” 

“No.” James grinned. “I started missing you right after you left, of course I did.” He was joking, but he wasn’t. 

“Good.” She said, “Because I miss you too. I should have asked you to come with me.” 

They were both quiet after that. 

James started tapping the pencil against the table. Perhaps he shouldn’t be so worried about telling her how he felt about her. “Do you want me to drive up there now?” 

“Yes,” Lily said, and she didn’t hesitate at all. James’ heart was in his throat. “But don’t. I’m gonna come back tomorrow instead of Sunday. Just finish your homework so that we can hangout when I get back.” 

James sat up, leaning over the table now. “It’s what? An hour to your mum’s house? I have a car and I know how it works for the most part. Send me her address. I’ll fight Petunia for you and then you won’t have to take the bus.” 

She laughed. 

“I mean it,” He said. “Well, most of it. I won’t fight your sister, but I’ll come up there.” He stood up, letting the pencil go and walking toward the door. “I’m already getting my shoes on.” 

She was quiet now as he pressed the phone between his ear and his shoulder. 

“Lily?” 

“Are you really going to come?” Her voice was quiet, different than it had been before. 

“Of course I am.” He reached for his coat and his keys. He was pretty sure he had a nearly full tank of gas. 

“You’re gonna make me cry.” 

“Well, don’t do that. You called me to make you smile.” 

She laughed again, but it sounded as though she might have been crying as well. “I’m still smiling. Thank you, James.” 

He locked the door behind him and then turned to take the stairs down to the ground floor. “No one needs to do homework on Friday anyway. You’re doing me a favor really.”

“No I’m not.” 

“Yes, you are. I almost had to go without seeing you for another night. Now I get to see you in an hour.” And he knew that he was being obvious now, he knew that he was saying a whole lot more than he’d let himself say before. 

“I should call you when I’m drunk more often.” 

James laughed. “I don’t disagree with you, Lily.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was inspired to write the next part of this one shot, so now it's a two shot.   
> Enjoy!

Lily heard someone knock on the door and jumped down half the stairs, almost landing in a heap on the floor, but she managed to get to the door before Petunia, and so she didn’t mind that her knee had been bumped and would likely bruise.

She stood up quickly and brushed herself off. “I’ve got it,” She said, raising her brow as she turned to face Petunia, who was frozen in the archway between the front room and the living room. “I’ve got it,” She repeated, turning toward the door.

“Freak.”

Lily pretended that she didn’t hear her.

She reached out and pulled the door open, launching herself into James’ arms.

She couldn’t believe that he was here. That he had driven all the way to her mum’s house just because she wasn’t having a good time, because she said she missed him.

“You’re here,” She said, her chin on his shoulder. He slid his arms around her waist and chuckled.

“Of course I’m here.” He said it so easily, like it was somehow not a big deal that he had driven all the way up here, that he had decided that he’d rather spend his Friday here at her mum’s house, where her awful sister was instead of back in the city where she was sure their friends were doing something fun and exciting that Petunia wasn’t involved in at all.

Lily was still a little tipsy. She’d had a third and forth glass of wine since hanging up with James and so she didn’t think that maybe she’d been hugging him for a little too long, she just knew that she wanted to keep hugging him.

“I can’t believe it though,” She said, taking in a deep breath, letting him fill her senses entirely. It had only been a day since she’d last seen him, but it had been almost a whole week since she’d last found an excuse to hug him. And he was such a good hugger, it was ridiculous that she didn’t get to hug him every day.

He tightened his arms around her.

“Lily? Who’s at the door?”

It was her mother, so she pulled back from James, reluctantly, and let him come all the way into the house.

“It’s James!” She called back.

“Your roommate?” Her mum appeared in the doorway, looking a little confused. “Hullo, James. It’s nice to meet you,” She held out her hand and James took it, smiling that charming smile of his. Lily smiled at him and then turned to her mum, who clearly wanted to know what he was doing here, but Lily knew that she was too polite to ask in front of James and so she wasn’t going to answer right now.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Ms. Evans,”

“Call me, Rose,” She grinned. She looked back and forth between the two of them. “Will the two of you be joining us?”

Lily almost snorted, which would have upset her mother, but it still almost slipped out.

“No. No, James and I are going to go out to the backyard.” Lily said, reaching out and grabbing James’ hand and started dragging him toward the back door. “Let me know when he’s gone,” She called back over her shoulder, knowing that she would pay for that comment, both because it wasn’t nice, and because Petunia definitely heard her.

James stayed quiet and followed her through the house and out to the backyard. Lily collapsed onto a bench that was at the edge of the patio and then let out a long sigh. “You’re quiet possibly the greatest.”

“I know,” He nodded, taking a seat next to her. “But, what did I- I mean, what is going on here?”

“My sister’s fiancé is here and he’s dreadful and they’re both being jerks and I’m drunk. Basically, everything I told you on the phone. And now you’re here and everything is fine!”

He cracked a smile. “Should you be inside with your family?”

Lily frowned. “No.”

He turned his head and sat up straighter. “Okay. I just don’t want to get you in trouble or anything. I mean this is the first time I met your mum, and I don’t think it went as well as it could have. I’m normally really good with parents.”

Lily narrowed her brow and snorted. “James, it’s fine. You’re wonderful and my mum is definitely going to like you, it’s me that she’s upset with right now.”

He nodded and then she nodded. “So, you missed me?” He asked. “You should have asked me to come with you?”

The way he was saying it, she knew he was expecting her to blush or try and take back what she had said. “I really should have.” She was drunker now than when she had told him the first time. “I knew that this weekend was going to be hard, and you always make everything better.”

James threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side. “Thank goodness you drunk dialed me then.”

“Thank goodness you came here,” She put her head on his shoulder and felt herself relax against him. “And now I get to go back to the city with you tonight instead of staying here. Alls well that ends well.”

He squeezed her arm and kissed the side of her head. “This doesn’t feel much like an ending, Lils.”

She wasn’t quite sure what he meant, because she felt a bit like she was floating more than anything else. “Whatever this is, I still can’t believe that you’re here.”


End file.
